I’ve been meaning to try making a Star Book for ages, and this beautiful
kit provided all the encouragement I needed to make one. The only problem was deciding what to use it
for – until I remembered my favourite Christmas poem, written by Sir John
Betjeman and perfect for a “display” book.
It’s not as tricky to make as it looks.
Each section is made up of three layers, and if you use a different
shade of card for each layer you won’t get in a muddle.
So grab your super-shimmery KI Memories papers from the December kit and
all the Christmassy embellishments you can lay your hands on and have some fun
making a beautiful centrepiece for your Christmas display.
Apart from your December Kit, here’s what you'll need:
4x4” chipboard: 2 pieces (for the cover)
Bazzill/DCWV weight card in 3 colours, cut 7 pieces each of:
dark turquoise: 8" x
4"
white: 6-1/2" x
3-1/2"
light turquoise: 5-1/2" x
3"
Toning ribbon about 80cms
Christmas die cuts, brads, eyelets, etc
Photos, quotes etc for your pages
Once you’ve cut all the card pieces, begin by making the cover.
1. Cover each of the two chip
squares with your chosen paper – I used Secret Santa.
2. Decorate each cover
piece. I cut 2 big parcel shapes, glued
them onto scrap card, cut them out, inked them and glued them to the
covers. I looped some of the
multicoloured Sheer Stars ribbon and fixed to the covers with some star
brads. Set the covers aside while you
make the pages.
3. Using glue or tape, attach the ribbon to the inside of the covers as
shown in the photo. Leave about 3cms
gap between the two pieces to allow space for the pages
The pages
1. Fold one of the 8 x 4” pieces in half – so that it looks like a
4”square card blank. Use a bone folder
to make a sharp crease. Repeat with the
rest of the large pieces of card (dark turquoise)
2. Fold the middle-sized pieces (white) in half in the same way
3. Cut 5-1/2" x 3" pieces of your chosen papers for your
pages, these are the same size as the smallest pieces of card (light turquoise)
4. Adhere one paper rectangle to each of the small card pieces (light
turquoise) Allow them to dry then carefully fold in half as before – you need
to have the paper side as though it were inside the card.
5. Decorate each of your
patterned paper pages however you wish. You could use Christmas Carols, poems,
photos, quotes – whatever you fancy.
Add ribbons, embellishments, brads and charms. Go mad, it’s Christmas!
Assembling the pages
1.Take one large folded piece (dark turquoise), one medium piece (white) and one decorated page (light
turquoise).
2. If you stand the decorated page up on your table, then stand the
white card behind it, and the dark card behind that you’ll get an idea as to
how it works. (scroll down for a photo)
5. Now repeat with the other
side of the white piece. Obviously it’s smaller, so the folds aren’t going to
match – it’s the outer edges of each piece that need to come together.
6. Now do the same for the decorated piece; line of glue down the outer
edges on the back, stick to the white card piece vertically centred.
It should look like this:
7. Make up all 7 sections in the same way
8. You now need to use the same narrow line of glue method to stick all
the sections together. Take the first
section and apply the glue down one edge of the dark turquoise card, take the
second section of your book and bring the two pieces together carefully
matching the edges.
Repeat
until all the sections are joined together; as you can see, the folded
edges will all remain loose - you'll be able to see how the star is
going to be formed if you stand the book up
8. To attach the covers, apply glue all over the back
of the last section and line up on the back cover piece, Stick down firmly.
9. Repeat for the top (first) section and glue the front cover piece in place. You may want to put something flat and heavy over this “sandwich” while it dries.
10. Once dry you can open out your book to form the star shape. Bring the two cover pieces to face each other and tie a bow in the ribbon to hold in place – it’s all done!
Here are some pictures to show how I decorated my pages
